The Latest

Thursday, May 24, 2018

On the last day of the regular season, only one show pulled off a nice season finale spike: NBC's Thursday-bound Law and Order: SVU, which was up two tenths to a 1.2 overall, including a 1.3 average in the 10:00 hour. It was down just a tenth from last season's two-hour finale.

Meanwhile, Survivor (1.5/1.4) matched or even went a touch below last week, finishing at least 20% behind the 1.9 finale from last spring. Fox was even with Empire (1.6) and actually down a touch with Star (1.2). And ABC sat out the last Wednesday with movie Toy Story 3 (0.7/0.6) and a 20/20 special (0.5).

Wednesday, May 23, 2018

ABC said goodbye to nine-season comedy staple The Middle, which averaged a 1.8 in its regular 8:30 timeslot and fell to 1.6 for the second half of the one-hour finale. Though The Middle couldn't get back to its levels from the early Roseanne weeks, this was up multiple tenths from what it's been doing earlier this month. Its lead-in Roseanne (2.4) ended the spring on a season low, and Splitting Up Together (1.0) didn't look so hot leading out of Middle at 9:30. For the People headed into a long off-season with its third 0.5 in the final four weeks.

On NBC, The Voice completed its limp to the finish with a 1.5/1.4 for its two-hour finale from 9:00 to 11:00. Even though it didn't have to go up against Dancing with the Stars like in previous years, this will be down considerably from last spring's 1.9 finale. (Last spring's finale also had to lead out of Great News (0.7/0.8), while this one got a Voice recap (1.1).)

CBS' NCIS (1.2) ended the season even or narrowly down, leading into a repeat (0.7) and the return of newsmagazine 48 Hours: NCIS (0.5). The CW's The Flash (0.8) ended the season well, but it was no help to The 100 which was stuck at 0.3. Fox went with a movie (0.4/0.5).

My recap of the Renewology maiden voyage in 2016-17 was actually published in late September, but I'm doing this one four months earlier because there is a lot of stuff fresh on my mind! I'm also feeling better about how things went for the model this year, which may be another motivating factor...

Tuesday, May 22, 2018

Spring reality staples Dancing with the Stars (1.1) and American Idol (1.6) were together for the first time, ending their seasons with one-hour and two-hour finales. DWTS was up a touch from the last couple weeks, while Idol bounced back markedly from last Sunday but still fell a bit below the live shows from previous weeks.

The ABC shows combined for a nightly win over NBC, which had its last Monday of The Voice (1.5) and another installment of Running Wild (0.7). Both networks easily beat out Fox's Miss USA competition (0.6), which was down two tenths from last year when it aired on a Sunday.

On CBS, the last two Monday originals standing were the only two that got renewed: Man with a Plan (1.0) and Elementary (0.5). Sandwiched by The Big Bang Theory repeats (1.1/1.0), MWAP was in the ones for the second week in a row. The CW's Supergirl (0.5) and iZombie (0.3) were both even and will continue airing into the summer.

Monday, May 21, 2018

After six years on ABC, the Billboard Music Awards (1.9/2.2/2.1) moved over to NBC. Since the show aired live in all time zones, it should get some boost in finals and end up down around 10% year-to-year; last year had a 2.3 prelim and 2.6 final.

The Billboard move proved to be a double-whammy for ABC, as it became tough competition for the network's Sunday finale of American Idol (1.3). It was down at least three tenths from last week, and America's Funniest Home Videos (0.9) and Deception (0.6) were also on the downswing.

Fox's animated anchors The Simpsons (0.8) and Family Guy (0.9) inched down for their season finales, but the final Fox episode of Brooklyn Nine-Nine (0.8) and 7:30/9:30 editions of Bob's Burgers (0.7/0.8) were even. CBS' NCIS: Los Angeles (0.8) was also steady in its two-hour season finale from 8:00 to 10:00.

Saturday, May 19, 2018

On the last Friday of the season, ABC's Once Upon a Time (0.5) couldn't even manage a one-tenth uptick for its series finale. Agents of SHIELD was also steady at 0.5.

The Hawaii Five-0 (0.7) season finale was back down to tie its low from two weeks ago, leading out of another 0.6 from Celebrity Undercover Boss. But NBC was on the upswing with Blindspot (0.6) and Dateline (0.8), as was Fox with the two-hour finale of MasterChef Junior (0.7/0.9).

The CW (which looks like it may be pending a preemption) was the latest to offer a royal wedding special (0.3), while Life Sentence hopes to hold onto a preliminary 0.2.

Thursday, May 17, 2018

NBC gave its 10/9c hour over to another royal wedding special (0.6), and its lead-in dramas The Blacklist (0.7) and Law and Order: SVU (1.0) were both down a tenth. The lack of Chicago PD was much-welcome news for Code Black, which perked up to a season high 0.8 on CBS. Survivor (1.4) had its lowest prelim of the season while SEAL Team (0.9) was even.

Fox dominated with Empire (1.6) and a four-week high for Star (1.3), and ABC got a couple post-cancellation upticks for Alex, Inc. (0.8) and Designated Survivor (0.6) while the renewed comedies (1.2/1.3/1.1) all matched last week. The CW's Riverdale (0.4) and The Originals (0.3) were also steady.